


Smoke and Steel

by Flightless_Bird



Category: Real Steel (2011), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: All Might Eraserhead and others are robots, Bot Fighting, First Meetings, Kirishima is a good matchmaker and he doesn’t know it, M/M, RIP Iida, Real Steel AU, Strangers to Lovers, chargebolt, human counterparts control them, if you’ve seen real steel you know what i mean, izuku shadow-boxing, kaminari denki - Freeform, katsuki at the controls, oh yeah Ingenium, robots beat each other up and their owners control them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28114575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flightless_Bird/pseuds/Flightless_Bird
Summary: ““Aw yeah! Look at him go! Midoriya’s really giving it to him with that little guy!”“Who?” Katsuki followed Kirishima’s gaze and saw a boy—looking to be around their age—standing outside of the ring. He had no fighter’s kit to be seen, no headset, not even a watch really. Just a guy in gym shorts and a ratty T-shirt, hands wrapped up and in fists. Katsuki raked his eyes over the boy’s lean form and wondered what on earth was so impressive about him.”
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	1. Unnamed vs. Ingenium

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched this movie recently and i remembered why i had fallen in love with it. I had this idea and decided to start writing. I have a pretty good idea of where i want the plot to go, but I’m gonna keep it relatively short because i have such a hard time finishing chapter works. 
> 
> Any comments are more than welcome and I hope you’ll give this silly au a chance. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Katsuki remembered the first time he’d ever seen a bot fight in person.

His mother had put away enough money to take him to a real league match for his birthday. He remembered that he could hardly wait, grabbing his set of _Real Steel_ headphones, made to look like the real thing, and dashing to the car.

It was nothing compared to watching the matches on television.

The roar of the crowd was near-deafening in his ears, only drowned out by the announcer, introducing the fighters. Katsuki still remembered them: the undefeated champion, All Might, commanded by Toshinori Yagi, against Eraserhead, the underdog. Katsuki, lifted up on his mother’s shoulders, had looked on with wide, excited eyes as they entered the ring. Of course, he’d cheered for All Might, the champion, the undefeated. Toshinori was incredible in the command center, watching every move, ready for any situation. Katsuki had been near-panic to see All Might backed into a corner, taking hit after hit, the clang of metal loud even in the scream of the stadium.

“ _Come on, All Might!_ ” Katsuki shouted loud as his little lungs could. “ _Don’t give up!!”_

And then, the surprised voice of the announcer, as Toshinori exited the command station and walked around the outside of the ring. Katsuki watched as he faced his robot from across the ring and shook out his arms. “It can’t be—but yes, it is! Toshinori Yagi is using his bot’s shadow feature to literally fight alongside him!!”

The crowd went wild, as Toshinori gave hit after hit after hit, All Might mirroring him with deadly accuracy. Katsuki had never been so impressed, so blown away. He so badly wanted to be just like him.

He threw his hands up with the crowd when Eraserhead hit the ground in a heap of metal. All Might propped one metal foot atop Eraserhead’s back and raised a fist in triumph.

The audience lost their minds. The champion of bot fighting won again, in a show of determination that hadn’t been seen before in the ring

Katsuki wanted to be just like that. He wanted to have an audience that would cheer him on as he defeated opponents, sent them crashing to their knees. He committed his studying to bot fighting, and when he was older, he finally saved enough to get his very own fighter kit, complete with computer command center and headset.

He couldn’t wait to show the world what he could do.

“Piece of shit.”

Katsuki tossed down his tools and plopped back into his chair with a sigh. Rubbing his forehead, he glared up at the metal junk he called a robot. It was rough around the edges to say the least. And it had just blown another arm joint in its last match. It wasn’t even named for God’s sake. Waste of time. Spinning his chair around to his worktable, he took off his headset and placed it back in its case next to him. Opening his notebook and sticking a pen between his teeth, he opened up his command set and the holographic screen lit up in front of him. He tapped a few keys and reached out to the screen to zoom in on the inner workings of the bot. “Shit,” he repeated, scribbling down a few notes.

Who was he kidding? He was never going to make it to the _Real Steel_ ring. He was still here, in a beaten up truck with an even more beaten up bot inside, and stuck in underground matches he barely won. Something was missing. His bot just...didn’t listen. He had voice commands and joysticks, but the reaction time was too slow sometimes. He was always taken out by an opening it left.

Putting the pen back between his teeth, he shut his eyes. _There’s no point. Fuck this._

“Hey, Bakugou?”

Opening his eyes again, he glanced over his shoulder toward the open back of the truck. A redhead with spiked hair and a ripped up T-shirt smiled at him from outside. Katsuki recognized him as Kirishima Eijiro, one of the younger contenders in the ring today. He tapped the side of the truck’s wall. “There’s another fight going on. Last one.”

“So what?” Katsuki scoffed, looking back down at his notebook.

“Well...it’s getting pretty interesting and I thought maybe you’d wanna watch. He’s up against Tenya and Ingenium.”

“Yeah?” Katsuki wasn’t actually listening. Tenya Iida was a tank with Ingenium, so it really didn’t matter if he went or not.

“Yeah, and he’s totally beating the shit out of him,” Kirishima went on. “Pretty cool fighting style too—he shadow-boxes, like Toshinori.”

Now Katsuki looked up again, eyebrows raised. “Shadow-boxes?”

“It’s totally cool,” Kiri gushed, eyes bright. “You gotta come, before the match ends.”

Well, he wasn’t being particularly useful here. Shutting off the command center, Katsuki pushed out of his seat and walked to the end of the truck. “Move,” he said, and Kirishima stepped back as Katsuki jumped down to the ground. Yanking the chain down on the truck’s door, he sent it crashing shut behind them as he followed Kirishima back toward the ring.

It was an outdoor match, barely a ring at all. Bleachers full of underground fighters and audience members alike cheered and cast bets. A rusty circular fence acted as a makeshift ring. The white metal of Ingenium flashed in the sunlight as it moved. At the side of the ring, Tenya Iida stood with his small command center, swiping his fingers across the screen furiously. Ingenium’s back was to Katsuki and he raised an eyebrow at the way it was ducking and weaving, backing up toward the fence. He was on the defense. Getting desperate, if the way Iida was acting told him anything.

Suddenly a steel blur appeared above Ingenium’s head and a fist came down on top of its helmet. The crowd went wild as Ingenium was knocked to the ground. Across from him, a smaller robot stood in a fighter’s stance, plain grey metal dull and rusted at the edges. Katsuki wrinkled his nose, while Kirishima pumped his fist in the air beside him. “Aw yeah! Look at him go! Midoriya’s really giving it to him with that little guy!”

“Who?” Katsuki followed Kirishima’s gaze and saw a boy—looking to be around their age—standing outside of the ring. He had no fighter’s kit to be seen, no headset, not even a watch really. Just a guy in gym shorts and a ratty T-shirt, hands wrapped up and in fists. Katsuki raked his eyes over the boy’s lean form and wondered what on earth was so impressive about him.

In the ring, Ingenium rosed to its feet with the grinding of gears. “Come on, Ingenium!” Iida ordered, and the robot came at the other with a huge right swing.

Out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki glimpsed a flicker of dark curls. He watched as the boy—Midoriya—ducked; the robot he commanded dropped under Ingenium’s swing with surprising speed. Without giving time to breathe, Midoriya threw a hard uppercut in the air. His bot mirrored him perfectly, delivering a blow to Ingenium’s chin that sent him up off the ground. Katsuki’s eyes widened as it came back down again, dust and dirt blasting out from under it. Back by his console, Iida’s shoulders slumped in resignation.

Midoriya didn’t leave his boxing stance, chest heaving and clouds of dust swirling around him.

“And there you have it, folks!” the announcer hollered into his mic. The cheap speakers blared as the audience surged in the stands. “The king of the underground, Ingenium, had been taken down by Midoriya Izuku! Let me hear you roar!”

“Oh man, he’s so cool,” Kirishima remarked. “Right, Bakugou?”

“Shut up,” Katsuki stated. He was already walking away, making his way between the people now leaving the stands to pay their bets and talk to the victor. Shouldering up to the front, Katsuki paused. Izuku stood in front of him, shaking out his hands and giving a tired smile to his onlookers. He had a bandaid stuck to one cheek and a splatter of freckles across his face. His gaze caught on Katsuki’s, bright green into dark red.

“Hey,” Katsuki snapped, raising his voice over the hum of the people around them. “You really fight like that every time?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Izuku answered, breathy with exertion.

“No console, nothing.”

“No...?”

“Why the fuck not?”

Izuku blinked a few times. “He moves faster if he’s reacting to me.”

Katsuki regarded him for a long moment. “How d’you know what’s going on inside him when he glitches? Or when there’s an opening you miss?”

“What’re you getting at?” Izuku asked cautiously.

Katsuki didn’t answer for a moment, weighing his options. He’d seen commanders of bots fluent in their tech, able to pinpoint every part of their robot and control every movement. He’d seen All Might shadow Toshinori, and beat Eraserhead in record time. He was good at the controls, but there were some things he just couldn’t react to fast enough.

“Work with me,” he decided.

A surprised murmur rippled through the crowd. Izuku cocked his head. “You mean be your partner? I don’t get behind controls. I’m—I’m pretty bad at it to be honest.”

“You can be as shit as it as you want. _I’m_ the one with the controls. You shadow.”

Kirishima perked up at the idea and looked between the two excitedly.

Izuku held Katsuki’s gaze for a long moment. Then the side of his mouth quirked up. “You gotta bot?”

“‘Course I do and it’s better than your piece of shit,” Katsuki replied, starting to smirk.

“All right then.” Izuku shrugged, smiling fully now. “I’ll team up.” Then he ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. “Uh, what’s your name?”

“Bakugou Katsuki. I already know yours since shitty-hair doesn’t shut up.”

“Hey!” Kiri protested.

“All right then, Bakugou,” Izuku said with a nod. “Let’s go then.”


	2. Deku vs. Chargebolt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “PowerLoader!”  
> Katsuki threw his hands up. “That’s taken too! Jesus, are you shitting me right now, Deku?”  
> “Deku!” Izuku exclaimed, pointing at him gleefully.   
> Katsuki arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”  
> “We should call him Deku!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really fun and I was so excited to finish it! I really hope you like it and leave a comment if you did! I’m writing more soon and I can’t wait for the next chapter!
> 
> Thank you again for reading!

“Has anyone ever told you your name could be ‘Deku?’”

From his seat across the truck, Izuku grimaced. “Uh yeah. Kinda embarrassing. But I dunno. I just think it’s a little funny now.”

Katsuki didn’t look up from his work on their bot’s new arm. “Why’s that?”

“Well, I’m not exactly useless anymore.”

Katsuki chose not to ask about the “anymore” part of that statement and instead shoved the arm off of the desk. It fell back at the robot’s side and he pushed his chair back to examine it. It was bulkier than the one he’d had before, but still on the smaller side compared to others. Izuku had used some of the parts from his own bot to help Katsuki repair and remodel his own, until it was something new. It still had rust in places and it wasn’t perfect, but it was closer than it had been. Katsuki glanced sideways at Izuku. “Well?”

Izuku hopped out of his chair and wandered up to the robot. He spent a bit gazing up at its armored face, then faced Katsuki. Smiling, he held out his hand. “Can I have a headset?”

Katsuki snagged the new headset they’d altered for Izuku and tossed it to him. Catching it, Izuku powered it up and put it on. He tapped the side, setting the bot to shadow mode. Then he dropped into a fighting stance. The bot did the same, feet clunking against the floor of the trailer with a metallic clang.

“Hey, watch it!” Katsuki snapped, sitting up. “I already had to fix a damn bot, I’m not remodeling a whole fucking trailer.”

“Okay, sorry,” Izuku said, clearly in a whole other headspace. He watched the bot carefully. Then, lightning-fast, he threw two punches, ducked under an invisible strike, and swung a right uppercut, like he’d done with Ingenium. The bot shadowed him almost instantaneously, shoulder bumping into the wall and prompting a growl from Katsuki. Izuku grinned. “I like him.”

Katsuki’s eyes fell to the strong curves of Izuku’s shoulders and he reran the last minute of his fighting moves over in his head. Then he coughed into his hand and looked away. “‘Him?’”

“Oh—do you not...do that?” Izuku asked, straightening up and facing Katsuki with a pink tinge in his cheeks.

“It’s a robot, not a person.”

“W—well, I know, but still. We name them.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and spun his chair back around to face his desk. “Speaking of which...” He trailed off pointedly.

Izuku’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, we can name him All Might!”

There was a moment of silence, as Katsuki took in how much of a fucking nerd this boy was. “I think we’ll get sued,” he said flatly.

“Oh right.” Izuku tapped a hand on his chin. “Maybe Destroyer? You seem like you’d like that.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“Exactly!”

“Fuck no, that’s too...little kiddish.”

“Crusher.”

“That’s worse.”

“Bulldozer!”

“Gross.”

“PowerLoader!”

Katsuki threw his hands up. “That’s taken too! Jesus, are you shitting me right now, Deku?”

“Deku!” Izuku exclaimed, pointing at him gleefully.

Katsuki arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“We should call him Deku!” Izuku insisted. He scampered over to his chair and plunked down in it so that it spun in a circle on its wheels. “It’s ironic and it’s funny! And I like the idea of him being the underdog.”

“He— _it’s_ gonna be the underdog no matter what,” Katsuki muttered. “We haven’t even fought with it yet.”

“S—so, do you think that’s a good name?” He gazed at Katsuki with hope glowing in those green eyes.

Katsuki sighed, tipping his head back toward the ceiling. “Okay, whatever. Fucking Deku it is.”

“Great!” Izuku said cheerily. “Now we paint him green!”

“ _What_?”

Katsuki didn’t know why he’d thought anything else, but their first fight wasn’t in a professional match. It was back to underground fights for them—new as they were, no one was going to endorse them in a league match and they certainly weren’t going to have the money to buy a spot. So, they started at the bottom and worked their way up.

“I don’t like it here,” Izuku mumbled, as they shouldered their way through the mingling people. It was in a parking garage, pipes and cement surrounding them and closing them in. A tight space, considering they were going to fit thousands of pounds of robots inside. 

“Why, ‘cause it’s dark?” Katsuki asked snidely, and was absolutely astounded by the lack of answer. “Shit, you’re hopeless.” He scowled at Izuku over his shoulder. “How’re you some hotshot fighter but you’re scared of the _dark_?”

“I can’t punch it!”

“Holy fuck, Midoriya.”

He could hear the announcer now, taking starting bets and filling the audience in on who would be fighting. She would also be taking signups for the match, for any last-minute contenders. That was what Katsuki was hoping for.

People gave the two of them weird looks as they passed. Katsuki hunched his shoulders and outright glared at anyone who got too close. He knew that they probably looked like a strange team: Katsuki semi-dressed up, in dark ripped jeans and a leather jacket, Izuku in sweatpants and another T-shirt. They looked more like Katsuki babysitting a lazy younger brother who chose to tag along. Actually—

“Hey, how old are you?” he asked Izuku as they neared the front of the crowd.

Izuku gave him a funny look. “Twenty, why?”

“‘Cause they’re gonna ask if you register and you have to be over eighteen.”

There was no answer and Katsuki turned to see Izuku gaping at him. “You thought I was a _teenager?!”_

“I had to check!” Katsuki retorted. “We can’t get kicked out!”

“How old are _you_?”

“Are you serious?”

“You asked me!”

“ _Twenty-fucking-three.”_

“Okay, so there,” Izuku returned, with a little stomp of his foot. Oh god, he was like a toddler. “Now, we’re even.”

Rubbing his temples, Katsuki turned back toward the announcer’s stand. “Unbelievable.” 

“Last call, last call!” The night’s announcer, a woman with jet-black hair and a leather leggings, raised her arm for attention, mic in her other hand. “Your host Midnight here, reminding you that this is your last call to be a part of the matches for tonight’s bot fights! Any takers? Or are you too _scared_?”

“That’s our cue,” Izuku whispered to Katsuki, hand on his shoulder.

“I know that!” Katsuki hissed back, batting his hand away. He raised his hand. “Hey! Over here!”

The people closest to them turned to look and backed up to make a little circle around them and Midnight. Midnight smiled at the pair. “We have a spot against Chargebolt, if you wanna take it,” she suggested. “Two thousand for every round, five if you win in the first.”

“We’ll take it,” Katsuki answered, and Izuku bounced a little on his feet in excitement. Jesus.

“All right! Everyone let’s welcome our new challengers!”

The onlookers cheered and some were already making bets on Chargebolt. Katsuki frowned. _They already think he’ll win?_

Midnight held up a tablet, touching a few things on the screen. “And what’s the name of your bot?” she asked, hand poised to type it in.

Katsuki gave a long sigh. “Deku.”

“How...interesting.”

Some people around them snickered.

“I hate you,” Katsuki muttered to Izuku.

They made their way back to the trailer, parked with the others near the rear of the garage. Their match was after the next one, so they had a bit of time to get ready. Katsuki swung the door open and climbed up inside. Deku waited at the back, newly painted and with its name printed in large, electric-green lettering across its chest plates. Katsuki had been against that from the start, but then Izuku had gone and done it while he was sleeping. Brat. He grabbed the case with their console and headsets inside and flipped the lid up. “Okay, I’m watching the screens, and giving the power-ups for the big punches,” he told Izuku, throwing his headset to him. Izuku fumbled to catch it, but eventually did. “I’m also gonna yell at you if you miss any blind spots. I‘ll pick up the controls if his vision gets blocked and he can’t see you shadowing for a second.”

Izuku stuck his headset on and adjusted it. “Okay, what do I do?”

Katsuki shot him a flat look. “Don’t fucking lose.”

“Sounds good!” Izuku chirped and Katsuki shut the case again. What had he gotten himself into?

Slipping his own headset on, he walked up to Deku and reached behind it to tug out the charging cables. There was a metallic grind of gears as the bot powered up, lifting its head. Katsuki knocked against its chest twice and walked toward the door of the trailer. “C’mon,” he said, giving Izuku a nod.

Beaming at him, Izuku pressed the side of his headset and it flashed on with bluish green light. Deku’s head jerked up to look at him and it stood, hulking shoulders crowding the trailer. Izuku hopped down to the ground and Deku followed him, its steps crunching against the pavement. The two of them approached the long line of chain-fence acting as a makeshift runway up to the arena. Katsuki could feel the weight of the robot behind them, a towering thing of steel.

“Next in the ring,” Midnight announced, voice carrying over the garage from her mic, “we have our crowd favorite! He’s our second-best in our arena, and a storm of a bot! Let’s hear it for Chargebolt!”

A bot with yellow plating at its shoulders and chest appeared on the other side of the ring. Stepping inside, it waved comically at the crowd. Katsuki leaned over to peer behind it and caught sight of a blonde guy holding a controller, a streak of black dyed into his hair. He was actually waving along with the robot and Katsuki snorted. “Don’t do that,” he told Izuku.

“What, wave?”

“Yeah.”

“Aw.”

Chargebolt then dropped its hands to the thick metal cord of the ring and a hiss of steam lifted from its shoulders. Sparks flew and the cord crackled with an electric current, causing a few audience members to rear back. Katsuki dragged a hand over his face. Great, so it had some special enhancements too and it could fucking electrocute them. No wonder people already expected him to win.

“Now, we have one of our new contenders!” Midnight went on. “You’ll remember him if not for his performance today but for his quirky name! Give it up for Deku!”

“Why did I let you pick that?” Katsuki groaned, as the crowd parted to let them approach the ring.

Izuku sniffed. “I still think it’s cool.”

Deku advanced with them, getting quite a few laughs with his nameplate, but appreciative stares as well. He wasn’t big by any means, but he had strong legs and reinforced forearms, equipped to store power and deliver huge strikes. It was a lot like All Might’s design and the parts for it had come from Izuku’s old bot.

Katsuki turned his headset on and lifted up his controller as they drew close to the ring. The two hand pieces lit up a screen between them, showing the inner workings of Deku and sensors locking onto Chargebolt to size him up. “Don’t die,” Katsuki said absently, before parting from Izuku and heading to their corner.

Izuku didn’t answer, and it was obvious that something had fallen over him since the prospect of a fight was so close at hand. He rounded the edge of the ring, lifting an imaginary cord and ducking under it. Deku mirrored him, dipping under the cord of the ring and straightening up across from Chargebolt. It walked to its corner as Izuku circled around to face it. Glancing up from his controls, Katsuki ran his eyes briefly over the bot’s back and then past him to Izuku. Ignoring the excited yells, Izuku rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. There were clangs of metal from Deku knocking its fists together in response. As he was taking a couple deep breaths, Izuku’s eyes caught Katsuki’s on him. Feeling stupid for doing so, Katsuki looked away quickly, back down at his screen. He bristled when he heard Izuku’s voice come in over the headset, soft but teasing.

“What’re you looking at?”

“Don’t open your mouth unless it’s about the match,” Katsuki snapped, furiously refusing to look back up again.

Izuku’s answering laugh made him want to punch him.

“Fighters ready?” Midnight asked. The blonde guy hollered a yes, Katsuki grunted and made no attempt at eye contact, and Izuku took a fighting stance. “Then, _fight!”_

“Power up the right arm,” Izuku said, and Katsuki didn’t have time to question him.

Chargebolt rushed in, aiming to send electricity through the opposing bot before it got a chance to counter. Katsuki tensed up, pressing the button that would focus energy into Deku’s right arm. Izuku took two steps forward and swung. The bot’s forearm locked back into place and then was jerked forward with the swing—it cracked into the side of Chargebolt’s face and the robot was thrown backward. Crashing to the ground, it laid in a sparking, shaking set of limbs.

The shouting in the garage quieted to an awkward murmur.

Katsuki gaped at the scene in front of him. Izuku stepped back, still holding his fists up defensively.

“What just happened?” Katsuki asked.

“I didn’t die,” Izuku answered simply.

Midnight cleared her throat. “Um, let’s—let’s start the count!”

The audience picked it up for her, some yelling for Chargebolt to get up between the numbers. The guy at the controller was punching buttons desperately, but it was clear that the bot wasn’t responding.

“ _One! Two! Three! Four!”_

Katsuki read over what information his sensors were taking in from Chargebolt and realized just how hard he’d taken the hit.

“ _Five! Six! Seven! Eight!”_

“Holy shit,” Katsuki muttered.

“Thanks!” Izuku replied cheerfully.

“Be quiet!”

“ _Nine! Ten!”_

“That’s it!” Midnight yelled. “What a _devastatingly_ short match! Deku has put Chargebolt out of commission with a single shot!”

There were going to be some lost bets, but the shock of the match was contagious; the crowd went wild, some chanting Deku’s name. Turning shadow mode off on his headset, Izuku jogged around the ring to Katsuki. “What’d you think?” he asked, grinning broadly. “I mean, I knew I could probably take him out if I didn’t let him get close, but I _definitely_ wasn’t expecting him to go down so soon, and I think it might be because he has a lot of power focused on his electricity and not on his actual defense so maybe—“

Katsuki took him by the shoulders. “You just knocked out a bot with one hit.”

“Technically, Deku did,” Izuku told him.

What in the fuck. Katsuki laughed because he couldn’t think of anything else to do. Shaking his head, he smirked at Izuku. “You’re something else.”

Izuku blushed, eyes softening.

Catching himself, Katsuki let go of him and picked up the controls again. _Why the hell did I say that? “_ Let’s go,” he said, taking his headset off and reached for Izuku’s “We gotta get another fight, and I’m aiming for the league next.”

Still smiling, Izuku handed him the headset and let Katsuki remotely walk Deku back to the truck.

He was all right, Katsuki thought. For an idiot.


End file.
